Donald Trump reacts in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 19, 2025. REUTERS Ken Cedeno
President Donald Trump's MAGA movement might still seem strong on the surface, as former Republican columnist David French explained on Thursday, it's actually "bleeding numbers" and "pulling apart at the seams" if you look deeper, and there are two key reasons why.
French is a former attorney and National Review commentator who currently works as a columnist for The New York Times. On Thursday, he appeared on The Bulwark Podcast to discuss one of his most recent pieces about the dissolution of the MAGA movement, titled "This Is What It Looks Like When Your Coalition Is Coming Apart at the Seams."
During the discussion with host Tim Miller, French explained that Trump's political movement is falling apart despite the occasional appearance of success, as evidenced by recent blowout Democratic election wins. To explain this, he cited two reasons behind the dwindling voter support for the GOP: Trump's exit from the ballot and changing perceptions of Democrats.
"The thing that has kept the Republicans together... was really two things," French explained. "One was a shared affection for Trump. I mean, nobody should say that virtually any Republican now is holding their nose to vote for Trump. Very, very few... So even the core normie Republicans like Donald Trump. So they had a shared affection for Trump, and [secondly] they had a shared antipathy against the left, specifically sort of the view that the Democratic party was far, far left."
He continued, explaining that Trump no longer being on the ballot going forward and the increasing radicalisation of Republican politicians relative to Democrats are the key changes causing the MAGA coalition to be "bleeding numbers."
"Well, two things are happening at once here," French said. "One is Trump's not on the ballot anymore. So that shared affection for Trump is not holding the coalition together as much. And then number two, the Democratic Party isn't the same party as it was in 2020, and the Republican Party is getting more extreme. And so the Democratic party has been moderating as the Republican party has been radicalising. And so a lot of that means that normie Republicans are now facing worse treatment and more vicious treatment from MAGA Republicans than they've ever experienced from Democrats.
"And while you still have a coalition that's hanging together, you can see it's bleeding numbers. My goodness. I mean, did you see some of these election results from earlier this week? Just remarkable. And so I think what has happened is while a lot of the Republican disunity has been obscured by the continued affection of partisan Republicans for Trump, you go one layer below that, just one layer, and the whole thing is starting to pull apart at the seams. This coalition is not a stable coalition of people."